The most accessible and common
pop-culture miximal forms you’ll likely recognize are remixes, mashups, andtributes,
but what are they exactly, and where did they come from?

Lets illustrate the audio
definitions to begin, but for the record, pure visual art analogs exist. Some
of these visual art forms are explained under the species-level definitions of
the miximaltaxonomywith identifications such assupercuts, or visual remixes such ascutdowns.
But for simplicity, let's start with the audio definitions of these forms
and work our way into the other complexities.

Anaudio
sampleis small unit
or fragment of a song, such as a few notes, removed and used outside of the
original work. Early audio-sampling techniques produced a new form of musical
expression first appearing in the 1960s and used by the Beatles in such songs
asYellow SubmarineandI Am the Walrus. In 1979, the
first popular rap song to fully exploit sampling wasRapper’s
Delightby the
Sugarhill Gang, which led to a revolutionary new school of expression. Today,
sampling has morphed from tiny morsels of flavoring into complex blends of
ingredients that produce new miximal recipes in every type of offering.

While contemporary
innovators might want to lay claim to these sorts of inventions, music has a
long and rich history of miximal experimentation.

The thirteenth
century produced the notion of rounds (or rondels) that later evolved into the
form known as a canon. In general terms, the canon can be roughly thought of as
a prehistoric remix. A canon is like a remix? Well, basically, yes, in
principle. You can be sure that Johann Pachelbel, the baroque composer best
known for hisCanon in D Major, would haveflipped his wigif he’d seen the technology tools
available today.

Row, row, row your
boatis a type of canon in which a melody is woven with one or more
imitations of the same melody that are played after a given duration. Canons,
like remixes, are self-referential and rely on what we’d now call amultitrackapproach to creating a layered
experience. But an important distinction shared by remixes and canons is their
focus or reliance on internal inspiration rather than external elements.

That said, new
tracks or sounds such as base beats can be introduced, but the introduction of
sounds are just that—sounds rather than songs—the introduction of another song
would be considered a mashup, not a remix. Its important to state right about
now, for illustrative purposes I'm limiting these explanations to a purest
definition of the forms but in reality art is frequently broad
or nuanced in ways that make purest definitions to simplistic, but for our
purposes here, lets keep it simple.

A remix is
typically audio or video (but can also be applied to the visual arts or literature)
that, like a canon, uses a singular source of inspiration (such as a song).
But, unlike a canon, remixes employ various complex layering techniques (such
as sampling and multitrack overlays) or supporting generic elements (such as a
rhythm track) along with heavy use of editing and effects to transform a
specific known or familiar work into an incremental, new experience.

When creating
audio remixes, it’s important to acquire the raw elements of a song—i.e., the
isolated a cappella track of the vocals, for example. Finding a popular song’s
instrumental tracks can be easier, especially if the song is available as a
karaoke single. Another popular technique is to use ahackof Guitar Hero®, the popular
air-guitar computer game, to isolate and remove tracks.

But, more and more, artists themselves are releasing isolated
tracks to encourage remixers to publicly contribute remixed versions of their
songs. The companion remixes are sometimes referred to ascrossovers,
orcross-genre mixessince they frequently change the
target audience—for example, making a dance remix of a previously undanceable
song. Many popular remix producers have been hired by artists to officially
remix songs and have even been paid directly or given royalties for their work.
The hitBad Romanceby Lady Gaga was remixed by DJ Chew
Fu, who describes himself as a “serial fixer.” TheH1N1 remixed
single is available for sale on Amazon and iTunes alongside the original song.

There are many
examples of (legal) financial opportunities for remixers, including DJ Earworm,
(one of my personal favorites) a San Francisco–based mashup artist who has been
creating year-end mixes titledUnited
State of Pop, using theBillboardmagazine top 25 hit songs from
the prior year. His mashup supermixes caught the attention of singer Annie
Lennox of the Eurythmics, who hired him to createBackwards/Forwards,
an official mashup of nine of her much-loved songs—which leads us to the topic
of mashups versus remixes.

The late sixteenth
century transformed the multitrack notion of a canon into the more complex
notion of a fugue. The fugue is known for having multiple voices, or
melodies—either playful or dueling in nature—that ultimately “sound together”
simultaneously at the end. A fugue can be loosely described as a prehistoric
mashup in which competing melodies create a transformational work (as opposed
to an incremental work) that is based on the combination or mashing of more
than one melody. The experiential nature of multiple simultaneous audio
channels—be it canons, remixes, fugues or mashups—has been repeatedly
reinvented by available technology and, most importantly, the collective
creative genius that continues to reveal our modern world in ways we can’t
always anticipate.

A mashup shares
similar editorial and creative processes with a remix but—not unlike the
fugue—typically uses two or more competing elements. However, mashups differ
greatly from the classical notion of a fugue, since mashups don’t rely
specifically on the artists’ intensional and specific original elements but
rather incorporate found external identifiable source materials with the goal
of creating synergy among the found artifacts. If successful, mashups produce
an entirely new andtransformative work
(while keeping key identifiable elements of the independent sources intact).
Why listen to one song when you can enjoy two or more at the same time?

Frequently, you can identify a mashup by its title, which
usually includes a “versus” reference, such as with performers “Madonna Vs.
Deep Purple” or “The Beatles Vs. Nine-Inch Nails” or, sometimes by song titles
“Thriller Vs. Smells Like Teen Spirit” or “Baby Got Back Vs. Turn the Beat
Around” and even esoteric combinations ofcircuit bending “Speak-n-Spell Vs. Elmo
Vs. Casio.”

YouTube is a great
resource that contains tens of hundreds of thousands of pure musical mashups,
musical mashups with accompanying video mashups as well as pure video mashups
and even brand mashing (typically forms of brand violation orCulture
Jamming) with such unlikely combinations as the mashup from TV’s
Family Guy,Kramer
Versus Predator,perhaps
inspired by the original and infamous Marv Newland cartoonBambi
Meets Godzilla.

DJ Y Alias JY's Vimeo Channel

Contribution
vs. Curation.

Middleman roles
have always existed in art. In a museum, we call this person a curator; in
publishing, we refer to the role as the editor; in television, we experience a
prime-time lineup of shows thanks to the programming executives. In radio, the
termDJ(disc jockey) represents a
traditional role of programming a lineup of music; however, in miximal culture,
the DJ (audio) or VJ (including video) role has been reinvented into an active,
participant capable and even expected to make creative content contributions,
as opposed to only selections.

Weaving multiple
songs together through cuts and overlays produces a transformational work that
creates a new (yet familiar) tune that can be oddly compelling or a complete
disaster. This trend has given rise to the miximal DJ culture whereby the
musical mixologist brings not just a curatorial perspective but also an
editorial and execution style that often overshadows the source elements and
delivers an experience that is truly greater than the parts.

Remixes and mashups can exist as static or canned works but are
also found in real-time live performances thanks to the talents of club DJs,
such as Francis Grasso, an American disc jockey from New York City. Grasso is
credited for inventing a technique called slip-cueing—which was later referred
to asbeat-matching,mixing, orblending—that
has become the basis of the most-successful club DJs’ performances. Dave Clarke
(not the Dave Clark of the Dave Clark Five) is a techno DJ and producer who is
famous for fusing hip-hop beats and techno in his sets. No short list of music
mixologists would be complete without a mention of Danger Mouse and the amazing
megamix talents of Gregg Michael Gillis (a.k.a.Girl
Talk), be sure to check out my blogMiximalismfor
more on the greats including Girl Talk.

DJ Paul V, originally from
Boston, is one of the central mashup DJs in the Los Angeles scene. From 2007 to
2009, Paul hosted a pivotal radio show in Los Angeles on Indie 103.1 FM radio
called Neon Noise. I talked with Paul about when he first encountered mashups.

The first mashup
he ever heard—and the one widely cited as the song that started it all—first
emerged in 2001. Referred to as “the song that defines the decade” in aUK Guardian newspaper article was
Christina Aguilera’sGenie in a Bottlemixed over a song from the garage-rock
revival band the Strokes’ first album,Hard to Explain.The song was titledA Stroke of Genius(also frequently cited as“A Stroke of Genie-us”) and was
created by a British producer named Roy Kerr (a.k.a. the Freelance Hellraiser).

Freelance Hellraiser

UK Guardian's Lynskey describes the song
as “pop brilliance” and writes, "In the 1980s and 90s, art-minded
mashups by the likes of John Oswald and the Evolution Control Committee tended
to highlight the smash-and-grab nature of combining well-known songs, producing
satire and subversion from the mismatch. . . . Kerr . . . was more of a benign
matchmaker, showing two disparate artists how much they really had in
common."

Arguably, the
earlier 1980–1990 influences and experimental sounds coming fromPlunderphonic and
theTape-beatlesform the basis of the current debate
over the official beginnings of mashups orbastard pop—as it was known at
the time—however, the British bootleg scene and bastard pop took a huge
evolutionary leap with Mark Gunderson’sEvolution
Control Committee, which, in 1993, produced a recording
of Public Enemy’s “The Rhythm, the Rebel” mixed with “Bittersweet Samba” by
Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass—clearly laying the foundation for Kerr and
others to refine and take the genre mainstream. For you geeks archivists, the
internets time tunnel will happily transport you togunderphonicfor some additional detail.

Several hundred
seven-inch vinyl singles ofA Stroke of Geniuswere released on an independent label,
which quickly generated a cease-and-desist order from RCA, the label of both
Aguilera and the Strokes. Kerr later became Paul McCartney’s official tour DJ
and additionally worked directly as a paid remixer for Aguilera.

DJ Paul V
found Stroke of Genius on
a promotional compilation CDThe Cornerstone Player, a subscription-based
three-CD promo package to which alternative radio stations frequently
subscribed.Billboardmagazinedescribed
CornerstonePromotions,
publisher of the package, as combining “the functions of a record label with
the business model of an ad agency.” Founded in 1996 by Rob Stone and Jon
Cohen, Cornerstone also has an in-house record label, Fader.

DJ Paul V
recognized the appeal of mixing what he called“obnoxious pop along with trendy
alt-rock and indie” sounds, and he soon found a wealth of emerging mashups
on peer-to-peer file sharing sites, such as Soulseek.

Successful mashups
use an A vs. B formula that necessitates that the listener be familiar with at
least one of the tracks, so, as DJ Paul V explains, “the whole point is
that your ear thinks it’s getting one thing, but suddenly it’s not . . . you
don’t have to know both [tracks] but you have to know one really
well.” The techniques of fussy beat-matching and key correction (a key is
commonly described as music’s harmonic center—for example, the key of C minor)
are employed to steer clear of what mashup artists callkey
clash. The craftsmanship of beat-matching and key correction are
important aspects to successful mashups.

In 2003, Paul V
started the first mashup club night in Los Angeles and soon began a “mashup of
the day” feature for Indie 103.1 FM, which later became a Friday night hit
show,The Smash Mix, combining mashups and indie hits
and which ultimately moved to the coveted Saturday night midnight-to-3:00 a.m.
slot with his hit showNeon Noise. With a
well-established radio audience, Paul started a club night of the same name and
transformed the radio show into a hit club experience.

Bootie Mashup Party

Concurrently withNeon
Noise, Paul became the founding DJ for the monthly Los Angeles
mashup club night called Bootie LA, a franchise of the original San Francisco
critical hit Bootie SF. The Bootie club’s tongue-in-cheek tag line is“ruining your favorite songs since
2003.” The official Bootiewebsitedescribes it as “Launched in 2003 in
San Francisco by A Plus D, aka DJs Adrian & Mysterious D, Bootie was the
first club night in the U.S. dedicated solely to the burgeoning artform of the
bootleg mashup—and is now the biggest mashup event in the world, with regular
parties in several cities on four continents, and various one-offs around the
globe.”

Examples of a typical Bootie musical lineup have included such songs
as these:

For these and many
more, visit tabTV's video playlists collectionMashMIX.

The other cousin
to remixes and mashups is the alpha trend known as atribute,
which can share elements of both a remix and mashup but is specifically
designed to pay homage to (or negatively comment on) a specific person or work
rather than as commentary, satire, or a parody of the source.

While terminology
likeremixandmashupis associated with pop-culture
media, the underlying and guiding principles behind it are evident across a
broad range of media. Miximal principles transcend physicality and material
processes to encompass conceptual thought as well. In staking out the scope of
artistic miximal influence, it is important to illustrate other manifestations
aside from music and consider influences in writing,fine art, and the visual arts. There
is mounting evidence of the miximal influence to be found in our language and
literature. Check out the other posts for more.

Ok since you've
been so kind as to read all the way down to the bottom, here's a gift!
One of the best collections of mashups from 2005 - 2011, all well
documented and attributed and for the most part downloadable unless they've
been destroyed by the &^$#! lawyers. Do yourself a favor and visit: